6 Must-See Anime If You’re 'Suicide Squad' Fan

Suicide Squad has dominated theaters around the world. Not even a month and the DC Comics' anti-superhero film has passed $500M box office mark. The story of super-powered misfits becoming heroes has inspired a lot of fan fiction, cosplay, fan art and much more. However, if you've already watched the movie and are a fan of anime, then you should see these movies and series.

6. Batman Assault On Arkham

Starting off the list is the obvious one, Batman Assault on Arkham. For those who are unfamiliar with it, the film follows the Suicide Squad - sent by Amanda Waller – as they break into Arkham Asylum to kill The Riddler and destroy a thumb drive with damaging information on the squad that he plans to make public. However, The Riddler makes a deal with them and offers the opportunity to escape from Waller's control. What happens next is total chaos with the certain appearance of The Dark Night.

While the animated movie is not technically an anime, it's worth watching. Maybe you can spot any other similarities between it and Suicide Squad.

5. Psycho-Pass

Now that we've covered the most similar anime to Suicide Squad let's hop on to the real deal. While Suicide Squad occurs in the present, Psycho-Pass takes place in a dystopian 22nd-century Japan. To decrease the crime rate the government created the Sibyl System, a technology that scans a citizen's probability in committing a crime. But, sometimes criminals slip through the system. Thus, it is up to Inspectors along with their latent criminals, called Enforcers to hunt these criminals down.

Like in Suicide Squad, the latent criminals a.k.a. Enforcers are forced by the Chief of the Public Safety Bureau and supervisor of the Inspectors - Joshu Kasei - to hunt down and kill other criminals. If they refuse to do so, they will receive the full force of the Dominator, a.k.a. they explode into a bloody mess. While the apparent reason for the Sibyl System may seem pure, its goal is much greater than stopping your run-of-the-mill criminal.

4. Danganronpa: The Animation

The anime follows a group of students who are trapped in a school with no way out. The shadowy headmaster of the school, Monokuma dictates that the only way to "graduate" a.k.a. leave, is to kill another student and most importantly get away with it. Whether the murderer succeeds or not depends on the School Trials. If they fail to catch the killer, the whole class dies, correctly identify the culprit and only the murderer gets executed.

Danganronpa, like Suicide Squad, share an influential figure who forces the group to do their bidding all the while holding their family hostage. Essentially, both series harness the weakness in humans to progress the story.

3. Riddle Story Of Devil

The story takes place at Myoujou Academy, a private boarding school for girls. However, there is a classroom - Class Black - designated for assassins. There we meet Tokaku Azuma, along with 11 of her fellow students in Class Black. The goal of each assassin is to kill their charismatic fellow student, Haru Ichinose. Whoever succeeds in killing Haru will have their deepest desire granted. But, each assassin only gets one chance; if they fail to kill her, they will be expelled.

Much like in Suicide Squad a group of young girls are tasked by the powers that be to assassinate someone else. While the squad is forced to perform the U.S. Intelligence's dirty work, these girls do it willingly, as the price for completing the assassination is much greater than their lives.

2. Btooom!

Instead of using a group of criminals to carry out dangerous plans why not use citizens to test your violent video game? This is what happened to several people who without explanation or recollection wake up on a mysterious island. Equipped with some provisions, bombs, and a strange crystal embedded in their left hand. They must fight each other like in the ultra-violent game Btooom! To get off the island, you have to kill seven people and get their crystals before they kill you.

While many government officials in the movie may find it cost-efficient to use criminals instead of soldiers to carry out dangerous missions. In Btooom! it is the opposite, as the developers would much rather put human lives in danger to get valuable data.

1. Gantz

Let's play a game, you're already dead, so it will not matter if you die. When Kei Kurono dies in a horrific train accident, he finds himself in a room with a black sphere at its center. Instead of continuing with this second chance on life he is forced by the sphere called GANTZ to play an alien-hunting "game" of unprecedented danger and horror.

While the main antagonist of both Suicide Squad and Gantz may be different, their intent is the same. They force other people to carry out their bidding, without any regards for to the other players. Even if the players in Gantz already died, they don’t feel that they are dead and in the end only want to go back to their normal lives.

An upcoming full 3DCG anime film named GANTZ:O is set to premiere in Japan on October 14. The new film will adapt the original manga's Osaka arc.

The central theme in Suicide Squad and all of these anime series is that human lives have no value. These characters go through hell and even death to keep their lives or have their wishes granted, but holding the strings of their future is a merciless and powerful person that prevents them from getting their freedom.